Serpent Den
by evenstar1791
Summary: Written w/NT:When Japan is invaded by a daunting amount of snakes to the point that it's obvious something supernatural is involved, what drama is this new case gonna get Yusuke and company into?
1. Sightings

**1- Sightings**

I have no comments on this one…just brace yourself for some insanity.

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"Honestly…three days to finish this stupid assignment…and I've even got massive projects in all of my other classes to deal with…" Kuwabara complained, sifting through textbooks and folders on the table at the café. Kurama blinked in surprise at the sight as he walked over from the door.

"Doing homework, I see." He said lightly, sitting down.

"_Stressing_ over homework…" Kuwabara corrected, packing everything up and giving up. "I give up for now…"

"I'm surprised you're even trying." He joked. It really was a surprise to see Kuwabara doing homework.

"Shut up." He sighed, shoving the books and folders into his bag. Kurama heard the door open and saw Yusuke coming in, looking no worse for the wear.

"Hey…" Yusuke sat down, sighing. "I _really_ hate college…I've got absolutely no free time the weekend between massive homework assignments and going out with Keiko."

"Wow…" Kuwabara muttered sarcastically. Hiei walked in and sat down silently beside Kurama.

"What are you all talking about this time?"

"Kuwabara's actually doing homework…and we're otherwise talking about school." Kurama answered lightly.

"It's a pain in the ass…" Kuwabara complained. "I'm so busy with school and shit lately I don't have time to spend with Yukina…"

"Not my fault. Hell, some days I _wish_ I was that busy." Yusuke joked. "I'm kidding, but still…you haven't mentioned anything about school, Kurama." He shrugged.

"That's because I find it enjoyable." And tedious, but mostly enjoyable.

"…Lunatic." Kuwabara muttered. He sighed and rammed his leg into Kuwabara's shin. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"Here we go…" He shook his head a little. "No reason to answer."

"Seriously. There's no point in answering. He's just stupid enough to say it again." Yusuke said with a shrug. Kurama sat back, anticipating an argument.

"You calling me stupid, Urameshi?"

"No…I'm calling you a complete and total _moron_." Yusuke retorted. Hiei sighed.

"Wonderful…it starts again." Kurama shook his head slightly as the argument set in.

"I'll be going." He got his tea in a to-go cup and left the café without another word. He headed down the road, heading back to the college dorms. He heard a hissing sound and looked down, stopping dead in his tracks. Someone nearby screamed as the cobra at his feet lunged at his ankle and sank its fangs in. He promptly collapsed.

XX

"I'll leave you two to argue." Hiei sighed, following Kurama's example immediately after he left. He stepped out and heard someone scream. He looked over to see a crowd gathering about a meter or so down the road towards the college.

"Someone call an ambulance! That kid looks like he needs one." He frowned and walked over to find out what happened.

_'Back off and give him some space, you idiots!'_ A loud voice went through his mind, though it was real enough as though he'd heard it with his own ears.

"What on earth…?" His frown deepened and he shoved his way through the crowd to see what exactly was going on. He saw Kurama on the ground, looking pale and sickly.

He looked like he'd passed out even as he was positioned as though asleep with his head on his school bag. A girl seemed to be treating a wound on his leg, an impossible amount of hair tumbling over her shoulders and fanning out on the ground behind her. Even though he was more focused on what happened to Kurama, he noticed almost every detail of the girl's features. Her skin was lightly tanned, like someone that spends a lot of time underwater during the summer, and her eyes were like the night sky on a New Moon.

He shoved into the space opposite her and crouched beside Kurama. "What happened?" He asked the girl.

"S-Snake…" Kurama started weakly. The girl shushed him, making a strange hissing sound as she shook her head at him.

_'He was bitten by a King Cobra. An ambulance has already been called. Please, help me get his heart elevated.'_ The light voice from before sounded in his head and he started. He figured it had been the girl speaking, but she hadn't moved her mouth.

"W-Who are you?" She looked at him like he was an idiot.

_'Diluviare Serena. Please stop getting distracted. Your friend's life is on the line here.'_ She responded, once again in his mind and not moving her mouth. He nodded dumbly and moved to lift Kurama's torso as she'd instructed. An ambulance arrived just then and a girl jumped out of the back before it fully stopped, barking out orders.

"Hey, Useless! Get parked and get yer arse out here to help!" Serena shook her head slightly and made an amused sort of clicking sound. "Imagine runnin' into you here, Diluviare." The EMT said lightly, tugging a gurney easily out of the ambulance. The other EMT joined her and helped her get Kurama onto the gurney; though Hiei guessed she probably would have been able to pick him up on her own. He gasped in pain when they touched his leg, but otherwise remained limp. Serena shook her head slightly and stood.

_'I've cleaned his wound and done everything humanly possible without hospital assistance. I also killed the snake before it got away.'_ The EMT nodded slightly.

"Thanks for that, Diluviare." She said lightly. "Symptoms indicate it was a cobra…either of you wanna ride there? I've gotta get some info on him on the way." Yusuke and Kuwabara showed up.

"What happened?" Serena shook her head and turned to them.

_'I know nothing about him. Are the two of you friends with him?'_ She asked.

"Yea." Kuwabara answered. Serena nodded slightly and looked at Hiei. He stiffened a little.

_'I'll tell these two what happened. Surely you know enough about your friend to go along?'_ He nodded once and climbed into the ambulance behind the EMT and Kurama.

"Okay then…punch it!" She swung the doors closed as the vehicle went into motion.

XX

Yusuke sighed as he sat in the ER waiting room, it was getting annoying how long it was taking for Hiei to come out and tell them what the hell was going on. And Kuwabara wasn't helping in the least, sitting there tapping his foot impatiently.

"Damn…I hate waiting…" He groaned, leaning back in his seat. Hiei finally came out just then and motioned for them to follow. Yusuke got up and dragged Kuwabara after Hiei by the ear. They made it to a room and went inside.

Kurama was unconscious, but his color was back to normal. Looked like the doctors did their job just fine. It was still pretty bad that Kurama was in that state. Yusuke sat down heavily in a chair.

"Damn…" Kuwabara said, sitting down as well.

"Makes you wonder how long they're going to keep him…"

"Until he's able to walk without assistance." Hiei said, sitting down by the window. Yusuke leaned back in his seat.

"Figures…that girl Serena said that he was bitten by a King Cobra. Those things are pretty bad…not the worst, but still pretty bad."

"Wait a second…Cobras are native to North Africa…aren't they?" Kuwabara asked stupidly. Yusuke nodded a little.

"Yea…that's what's strange about this." He mused.

"Eight people went through the ER before we got here; all were bitten by venomous snakes not native to this area. After we got here, there were four more." Hiei said flatly, looking out the window.

"Damn…" They all looked at Kurama to see him waking up, his eyes fluttering open weakly.

"Mornin'." Kuwabara said lightly. Yusuke sighed and smacked him over the back of the head. Kurama sat up, laughing slightly.

"How long was I out?"

"About two hours." Hiei answered.

"Wow…I didn't get to say earlier, because Serena shushed me. There are more…" They all sighed.

"We know." They said at the same time. Kurama blinked in surprise.

"Oh…okay then."

"This is also a bad time to mention that you're ophidiophobic." Hiei said bluntly.

"Right…" He leaned back against the pillows. Someone knocked on the door, drawing their attention. Yusuke frowned a little, wondering who the hell would actually knock on the door. Everyone that would want to chat with Kurama—except his family—was already there, and nurses hardly ever knocked.

Kurama winced a little. "Come in." He said. "Great…now I've got a headache…" The EMT from before came into the room, holding a cell phone out.

"One of you guys named Yusuke?" Yusuke frowned and stood up.

"That would be me…" She nodded a little, looking aggravated.

"Is your cell phone on vibrate or dead? Trust me, I'm not asking for personal benefit." He frowned deeply and checked his phone.

"I must have forgotten to take it off vibrate…" He gasped at the fact that he had three missed calls from Keiko. "Shit…Keiko's gonna kill me…"

"Use my phone. She's already on the line." She held out her phone to him. He took the phone and stepped outside the room.

XX

"…How do you know Yusuke's girlfriend?" Kurama asked. He recognized the girl as the EMT who'd been in charge when he'd been picked up by the ambulance, but he couldn't figure out how Keiko would know a nurse well enough to have her number.

"Sociology and Trigonometry." She said bluntly. Like that explained it? "She's lucky she called me before I left for class. I was heading over here anyways. Good to see you awake, Fox Boy." He frowned, surprised. Did she actually know that he was a demon somehow? "Oh. The name's Hoshiko. Nice to meetcha, Kurama." He sent a glare at Hiei.

"What? I gave your human name." He defended himself and Hoshiko smirked.

"I could tell you were a fox demon. And you're the only fox demon that I know of with a Yoki intermingled with human Reiki." She shrugged. "Anywho…once the Grease Monkey gets back with my phone, I'm heading out. Just checking in." Yusuke came back in, sighing.

"Thanks…" He handed the phone to Hoshiko and she grinned.

"No problem. She called me thinking that _you_ may have been the one carried off in the ambulance." She laughed slightly, sticking her phone in a pocket. She seemed to be pretty good friends with Keiko, despite only knowing her through two classes. "Took me forever to get it through her head that no one with your name have been brought in. Oh…you guys work for Koenma, right?" Yusuke's eyes went wide. How did this girl know so much? She seemed like a normal human girl.

"W-What makes you say that?" She sighed.

"Let's see…Botan described the group…in my own words, mind you, an idiot, a shrimp, a punk, and a fox. You four fit that description." Rude little minx, that one. Did she have no sense of self-preservation? She was in the same room as three demons and a human with decent skill with Reiki…was she purposefully testing her luck with rude comments?

"If you're delivering a message for them…" She gave Yusuke a glare that Kurama figured would not only curdle milk, but turn it into sour cream.

"I am, but if you interrupt me, Grease Bucket, you'll be in the ER with a worse looking face than that one." She jabbed her thumb in Kuwabara's direction. "Anywho. The runt wants you guys to look into the whole snake thing. There's something really off about the whole situation. And that's comin' from me, not the runt. He just had this look on his little face that said he was itching to watch you make a fool of yourself…" She shrugged.

She was officially insane. Only an absolutely crazy person would talk like that about a situation like this. Yusuke was dumbstruck, hell so was Kurama. "Everyone's entitled to an opinion. He gets that look when he asks me to do shit too. Not that I ever do any favors for him…" She sighed and turned. "Well. I've done my job. Gotta get to class. And…word of advice, don't worry Keiko-chan like that, Grease Bucket." Her voice had a hint of a threat in it as she left the room. It left a bad taste.

"…Wow." Kurama commented. He was shocked by her behavior. If she 'could just tell' that he was a demon, then she _had_ to have known that Yusuke was a demon as well.

"Dang Urameshi…" Kuwabara laughed.

"Really? Keiko just bitched me out for not answering her calls and then that chick bitched me out for worrying Keiko? Damn I'm screwed…" It was extremely strange in Kurama's mind. She was obviously hiding something. He started, belatedly sensing something in the room. Was that…Yoki? And not Hiei or Yusuke's, it would be stronger than that.

Why was a demon posing as a human nurse in college?

%%%

Yea, this one's gonna be crazy if you couldn't tell already.


	2. Smitten?

**2- Smitten?**

So here's chapter two—at last. You would not believe how hard it is to take something that's already written and making it your own. And on top of that, all the details I add in this…all of them come from me only. Nakira and I literally only wrote the dialogue and major details like actions together.

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"Good morning." Hoshiko entered the hospital room quietly, not wanting to wake Kurama if he was asleep. "You sleeping, Red?" She saw Hiei sitting by the window.

"He's asleep." He said quietly, not looking away from the window. She shrugged.

"Okay then. Well, I'm gonna be his nurse today…so when he wakes up, let me know." She turned to leave the room, pausing to wait for a response.

"Of course." She looked over her shoulder and saw Kurama wake up. She cursed internally.

"Oops…looks like I was too loud…" She whispered. She turned fully to face him as he opened his eyes and stared.

"Great…what are you doing here?" She smirked. Well, she'd certainly made an impression on him yesterday.

"I'm your nurse for today. If you need anything, just let me know." She said lightly.

"Thanks…I'm kind of hungry as it is." Her smirk turned into a grin and she nodded a little.

"Okay. I'll see what I can do in the way of grub for you. Is your leg hurting?" He nodded.

"A little. But it's not too extremely painful." Not surprising, since he wasn't human. It was a wonder to her that humans didn't notice demons around them when their auras were so obvious to Hoshiko. She crossed the room and looked at the file hanging on the end of his bed to double check something.

"Okay. We do have permission to give you pain medication if it gets unbearable." She smiled at him a little—purposefully about to try and fluster him, if not piss him off enough to get a glance of his demon form. "But I doubt it'll get worse, with you being a demon and all." She turned and headed for the door, smirking at his expression. She left, softly closing the door. She headed for the nurse's station.

XX

Kurama sighed quietly and turned on the TV.

"After yesterday's mass snake attack—" He grimaced and changed the channel.

"I'm reporting live from outside the hospital, where just in the past twenty-four hours there have been over twenty people hospitalized by snake bite. There have fortunately, only been three fatalities. The hospital is buzzing with activity as ambulances continue to come in and out with snakebite victims. The hospital has even already started an 'employee of the day' program to give their employees and interns an incentive to be even more encouraging and helpful to patients and their families and friends. They've even asked to have the names broadcast here." He started to change the channel again, not wanting to hear any more about snakes. The door opened.

"Hold on. Let's watch this channel." Yusuke said, stepping in. He sighed and looked at the screen.

"In fact. Yesterday's 'employee of the day' here was a young lady by the name of Sogeki Hoshiko." Even Hiei looked at the screen hearing that name. "This young lady has a very encouraging story as it is. She's only seventeen and has raised herself since she was thirteen, when she miraculously survived the Sora Apartment Bombing with only a shattered leg, which fully healed three days later! She literally walked out of the hospital in perfect condition three days after the bombing!

"According to our sources, she is a medical student at Tokyo University, and is—at seventeen mind you—already about to graduate with a Doctorate! Yesterday, according to hospital faculty, she single-handedly directed seventeen ambulance trips to pick up snakebite victims! And to top it off, she went around to _every single patient_ she picked up to personally check on their condition, making herself late for a very important class at the school!

"And if that wasn't enough to help her earn the award, when our investigators interviewed her, she simply said that it was her job to make sure that every single patient she took care of, whether in emergency transit or in a hospital room made a one hundred percent recovering in half the expected time! Despite some faculty complaints of her attitude towards other employees, she has shown strong dedication to her job." Kurama blinked in surprise as the reporter changed the subject.

"She's only seventeen…?" Yusuke asked dumbly. Kurama would have guessed she was at least a year or so older than he was in appearance at least.

"Oh great…this is the third room I've been in where that was on…always over-exaggerating…" Hoshiko glared at the TV as she entered the room. "Hi, Grease Bucket. I heard from Keiko-chan that congratulations are in order." She paused, looking at Kurama. "Oh, and I brought you a menu, Red. The doctors have you on a liquid diet for today, just to be on the safe side and help the medication from yesterday fully get out of your system." She handed him a folded sheet of paper.

"Thanks…" He took it from her and looked it over. She certainly sounded older than seventeen. But if it was true that she'd been on her own since she was thirteen, that wasn't surprising. He glanced at her—he couldn't even sense her presence in the room, so the only reason he knew she was there was by sight, smell and sound. Thinking about it, she smelled pretty damn good.

"I recommend if you get either the chicken or beef broth, to ask for the low sodium. The regular is really salty." He nodded slowly.

"Thanks…how do I order…?" He turned the menu over. "Oh, there are instructions on the back here…"

"Congratulations for what?" Yusuke asked suddenly, and Kurama remembered that she mentioned something about that when she'd come in. She held out her ring finger.

"Asking Keiko-chan to marry you. She called me almost as soon as it happened." Kurama blinked.

"You proposed to Keiko last night? Why didn't you tell any of us at the café?"

"I was going to. And then Kuwabara had to start being an idiot."

"Thanks Kiri. I'm reporting live from the Animal Control headquarters in Downtown Tokyo." They all looked at the TV hearing that. "So far, Animal Control has counted over a thousand snakes they've picked up and taken care of. Fortunately, according to the Director of Animal Control, less than one fourth of the snakes found have been venomous.

"And less than half of those were found to be deadly. Animal Control Director Harai commented: 'Only a small portion of the serpents reported were native to Japan and the Tokyo area. And even then, only a small portion were found to be native to any region in Asia.' A very strange occurrence indeed!" That wasn't good. Especially if it was being caused by who he was afraid it was caused by.

"Bad day for Animal Control…" Hoshiko muttered. "Oh crap! I've gotta get back to the nurses' station! Just call if you need anything." She ran out of the room.

"Wow…" Yusuke sighed and sat down.

"Morning." Kuwabara entered the room.

"Good morning." Kurama said lightly before turning on Yusuke. "So? What happened? It's kind of not fair that we heard about this from the _nurse_." He was more than a little miffed that Yusuke had neglected to let them know he was about to become engaged.

"Heard what?" Kuwabara asked stupidly and honestly, it didn't surprise Kurama in the least that the idiot had no idea what was going on.

"He proposed to Keiko last night and didn't tell anyone that he was going to do it!" He said indignantly. "So much for friendship."

"He _did_ say that he planned to before the idiot started acting out." Hiei sighed.

"Exactly! After I left here, I went to set up some things at the restaurant I was going to take Keiko to last night. It was kind of corny, but she seemed to love it…luckily she didn't almost swallow the ring…she started crying when she pulled it out of her glass." Yusuke laughed a little.

"Nice job, Urameshi!" Kuwabara said, clearly he either didn't notice that Hiei called him an idiot or he just didn't care anymore. Knowing him, it was the former, Kurama was sure of it. "When is it?"

"We're looking at six months from now. My thinking is 'the sooner the better' but I know that it's gonna take some time to get stuff together. I haven't told my mom yet either. I doubt if she even realized when I bought the ring…" Yusuke shrugged. The door opened abruptly and for a moment, Kurama worried that it was Hoshiko again.

"Shuichi?" His mother hurried into the room and to his side.

"Hey Mom." He sighed. Just what he needed…his mother worrying about him when it was just a snakebite…what was he thinking? _Just a snakebite_! He'd never been that petrified in all his years as a demon!

"Hey, Red…you gonna order your breakfast? I'm having to go around and ask everyone…" Hoshiko came into the room and stared at the only uninformed human in the room, his mother. He was suddenly very glad she didn't seem to have enough respect for anyone to actually use their names. "Hello…"

"I'm…"

"Shuichi-kun's mom. I can tell. He looks a lot like you." She smiled slightly and he was shocked to hear that name come out of _her_ mouth. Strangely enough though, something in him enjoyed hearing that. "Anyways, Red. If you wanna eat in the next hour, you may want to go ahead and order. Oh, and I also needed to bring these in here." She held up two urinal containers and he couldn't help but blush a little. Did she not care in the least that his _mother_ was in the room? "Looked like the night-shift had an idiot or something running around last night to forget these." She set them on the table against the wall. "I'll come back in a little while to check in before I head to class." She headed for the door. "Nice to meet you." She addressed Shiori and hurried out.

"She's…very interesting." She commented when the door closed.

"Interesting doesn't cover it…" He muttered. "Mom…what are you doing here?"

"Checking on you…"

"Seriously? That's why all of us are here. Well, besides Hiei. He has nothing better to do." Kuwabara laughed. Yusuke smirked.

"I don't know…you saw the look that Serena was giving him yesterday…" Hiei's cheeks turned a light shade of pink and he looked out the window, clearly trying to ignore them. Kurama couldn't help but laugh a little at that.

"Don't pick on him, you guys. We all know she's _way_ out of his league." He joked, picking up the phone to order lunch. He saw Hiei narrow his eyes and glare out the window. Yusuke laughed.

"You know he's joking, Hiei."

XX

Later that day, after he'd left the hospital, Hiei was walking rather aimlessly through the park, not really paying attention to where he was going.

_'Hiei, look out!'_ Serena's light, airy voice sounded in his mind suddenly and he stopped walking mid-step and looked around, spotting a rattlesnake right where he'd been about to put his foot. That would _not_ have been good. _'Back away from it slowly. I'm sitting on a bench a few paces back.'_ He put his foot down behind him and did as she said, joining her.

"W-What are you?" He was more than slightly unnerved by the fact that she was only speaking in his mind. She smiled slightly, making an amused clicking sound. "Do you actually talk?"

_'That depends on what you mean by that. You hear me perfectly well, don't you?'_ She asked, the only movement of her mouth being the formation of a light smile. He frowned.

"…_Can_ you talk? Aloud, I mean." He amended, seeing that she was going to dodge it otherwise.

_'Only in certain circumstances. I'm not human, naturally.'_ She responded, standing up. _'I should leave…'_ She looked at him. _'You should keep an eye out. It's not a good idea to walk around aimlessly these days.'_ She started walking and he started after her.

"W-Wait a second…!" He tried to grab her wrist to stop her. "You didn't answer my question!" She stopped walking abruptly.

_'What I am doesn't matter.'_ He stopped as well, startled and unsure how to respond to that. Serena looked at the sky as it suddenly started pouring down rain. She held out a hand, her dark hair flowing around her like water. She opened her mouth slightly. "It only matters that…I can help this world." She said aloud and Hiei was sure his heart stopped. Her voice was even sweeter than the mental voice she used, and _that_ made his stomach clench painfully. He stared dumbly at her and she vanished into thin air.

XX

"On the bright side, you're out of the hospital." Kuwabara commented lightly. They were all at the café, and Kurama had a set of crutches leaning on the wall behind his seat. He was still having a bit of trouble walking properly because the room he'd been occupying was needed for a surgery patient and he'd been booted from the hospital.

"Yea…did you pay attention to the news broadcast? Every single time I turned on the TV, they had her face plastered up there…" He sighed almost dreamily. He had no idea what was wrong with him. Just thinking about _her_ had him on cloud nine and feeling like a kit with a new plaything.

"She made Employee of the Day that much?" Kuwabara asked dumbly.

"…Yea." He sighed again.

"You're smitten…aren't you?" Yusuke asked, flipping through a small stack of homework papers.

"At least I'm not Hiei. Serena apparently can't even speak aloud."

"Really? I heard her clear as day when we met her." The idiot said lightly.

"Seriously? You couldn't tell that she wasn't speaking, but _thinking_ that to us?" Yusuke sighed. "You're just too stupid."

"She spoke when it rained the other day." Hiei sighed. Kurama blinked in surprise.

"I think he's got it worse than you do, Kurama…" Yusuke muttered and he couldn't help but nod in agreement. Abruptly, they heard Yusuke's ringtone for Keiko—Flyleaf's 'All Around Me'—and he answered the phone. "Something wrong, Keiko?" His eyes went wide and Kurama figured that she was scolding him for being late or something.

He was proven right when Yusuke started frantically gathering his things and packing up. "Oh crap…I totally forgot, Keiko. I got caught up in a group project with Kuwabara…" He got everything in his bag and stood. "I'm on my way. Kuwabara's being an idiot anyways." He shouldered his bag and left the café.

"…Wow…" Kuwabara said as the door closed behind Yusuke.

"The only person he fears…and he's marrying her." Kurama noted with a small laugh. The door opened and he barely sensed Hoshiko's aura.

"Honestly Diluviare. You are such a drama queen…at least when it comes to stuff like that…" He looked over to see her walking in with Serena, who made an aggravated noise and rolled her eyes.

%%%

Yea, this one's gonna be crazy if you couldn't tell already. And sorry about how long it took to update. It's really hard transitioning all the POV changes to that things make sense…


	3. NOTICE

Moving to DeviantArt~! Preexisting posts here will remain, but anything new will be found at .com

Stories with mature content (Pretty much all of them) will require a DeviantArt account to view so I can keep maturity filters correct. Go watch me there and keep an eye out~!

I'm doing this to satisfy my own beliefs as there is no mature content filter on . My preexisting stories will also be available in edited versions on DeviantArt, so feel free to read those and tell me what you think.


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